The "scotch yoke" apparatus is well known to those skilled in the art. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,092,185, 5,085,401, 5,080,565, 5,078,017, 4,977,864, 4,967,558, 4,889,039, and 4,842,492. The disclosure of each of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
The prior art "scotch yoke" apparatus converts rotary motion into one form of linear motion which, in turn, is converted into an orthogonal linear motion. Because energy is wasted in each conversion step, this apparatus is not very efficient.
It would be desirable to be able to directly convert rotary motion into alternating linear motion in at least two different directions. To the best of applicants' knowledge, there is no device disclosed or available which can achieve this goal.
It is an object of this invention to provide a device for directly converting rotary motion to alternating linear motion in at least two different directions.
It is another object of this invention to provide a compressor or pump comprising the device of this invention.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an engine comprising the device of this invention.